SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres are in bankruptcy, and as was the case during the All-Star weekend, the continuing machinations involving the troubled franchises will be a backdrop as the season winds down.

	Alexei Kovalev will be highly sought as the trade deadline approaches.

Of course, Rod Bryden could set a contagious precedent if he succeeds in re-purchasing the Senators out of bankruptcy and essentially voiding the franchise's onerous debt. We could see more Chapter 11s in the NHL than we now see on the new non-fiction table at your neighborhood bookstore.

But as the financial storm clouds continue to gather, and as lines continue to be defiantly drawn, setting up the contentious 2004 confrontation over the collective bargaining agreement, The Game still can be the story.

When we allow it to be. Even in Ottawa.

"We've been on top for a while, and we know people are gunning us now," said Marian Hossa, the Senators' brilliant young winger. "That's a new situation for us because we never used to be a No. 1 team, so the focus is on the team, and that's been successful for us. Jacques Martin has been (in Ottawa) a long time, seven years, and he knows everybody so well. You look around our dressing room, and there are so many No. 1 picks. Everything has come together, and we have been clicking."

So as the stars left South Florida to resume the NHL schedule following the Western Conference's 6-5 shootout victory over the East, and the league's power brokers remained behind to hold owners' and general managers' meetings, the potential storylines -- starting with the Senators -- were intriguing.

The Scoring Race
It almost seems as if Mario Lemieux hasn't played since Thanksgiving, but the reality is he's missed only nine of the Penguins' last 10 games. And the best owner-player in sports still is the NHL's leading scorer, three points ahead of the Canucks' Markus Naslund. This would be insulting to the league -- and a stinging indictment of the rest of the talent pool -- if it weren't Mario Lemieux. He's just out there. On an island. Now it's challenging to guess how many games he can miss and still be the NHL's leading scorer.

How's 20 sound?

"I was playing with him for so many years; I am not surprised,'' said Washington's Jaromir Jagr, the long-time Lemieux teammate with the Penguins. "This game is not only about speed or skill. It is also about how smart you are. Mario is the smartest player with Wayne Gretzky to ever play hockey, and that's going to show. You don't have to be the fastest; you don't have to be the strongest. You have to find a way to put the puck in the net and be in the right place. He outsmarts everyone, and that's how he gets the points."

The catch here is that if the Penguins completely fall out of the playoff race, either before or after trading Alexei Kovalev, the incentive for the playing owner to return would be lessened. Speaking of which ...

Trade effect
Yes, trades over the next six weeks could alter the face of the races, and the farce promulgated by the NHL's ridiculously late trade deadline gets worse every year as the payrolls increase and the pressures mount for likely non-playoff teams, or even playoff teams in special circumstances, to hold fire sales.

The difference this season is the unknown of how the looming CBA negotiations could affect teams' willingness to assume huge contracts. Not only could they take an immediate financial hit, but teams could also assume longer-term obligations that could come into play under luxury tax or salary-cap provisions.

Kovalev is going somewhere -- and the best guesses are Toronto or Colorado -- despite his stated preference to stay with the Penguins.

"If they can find a way to keep me there, it would be great,'' he said during the All-Star weekend. "But everybody knows this is going on because it is business, and not because they don't like me or don't like my game."

Owen Nolan? Ziggy Palffy? Mathieu Schneider? Stay tuned.

West: Watch out for Vancouver
The Dallas Stars are threatening to run away from the rest of the Western Conference. The St. Louis Blues have been amazingly resilient through their injuries and goaltending mess. The Detroit Red Wings seem to be muddling along, waiting for Curtis Joseph to step up and for Steve Yzerman to return.

	“	A lot of people thought we were not going this far, but we have a great coach and we play our system. We don't have any stars on our team. We just try to play and have fun. ”
		— Marian Gaborik, about the surprising Minnesota Wild

But the breakthrough team is the Vancouver Canucks, largely thanks to the continuing dominance of Naslund, the unassuming Swede who will be the Hart Trophy winner if Lemieux is sidelined too long, and Todd Bertuzzi, another example of why giving up on prospects too soon is one of the NHL's perils.

"I think we're the team everyone's chasing now,'' Bertuzzi said of the Northwest Division race, "and I think we feel really comfortable in that situation. Obviously, it's going to be a tough grind to finish it off, but that's how our organization is going to mature."

Colorado's chase after what would be the franchise's unprecedented ninth straight divisional title doesn't seem like a particularly ambitious quest, but it's important to general manager Pierre Lacroix -- and might affect his decision-making down the stretch.

Even more than in the past, he might be willing to make a risky move that could seemingly drain the organization of younger talent. Lacroix's apparent willingness is why the Avalanche -- who in recent years picked up Theo Fleury, Ray Bourque, Rob Blake and Darius Kasparaitis near the deadline -- likely will pull off a significant deal in the next month.

Patrick Roy has struggled for stretches this season, making it fair to wonder if he has suddenly lost it at age 37. But the key issue is whether he has one more larcenous late-season and playoff run in him. It's easy to overlook the heat he took when he was only so-so at the outset of the 2001 playoffs; he responded with a run that earned him his third Conn Smythe Trophy. Were his Game 6 "Statue of Liberty" gaffe, and then his Game 7 fiasco against Detroit a year ago mentally scarring? Probably so, but scars can disappear.

The conference's biggest surprise remains the Minnesota Wild, but Marian Gaborik's emergence as one of the league's bright young stars underscores Minnesota's legitimacy.

"A lot of people thought we were not going this far, but we have a great coach and we play our system," Gaborik said. "We don't have any stars on our team. We just try to play and have fun."

Wait a minute. Gaborik, who has 26 goals and is on pace for about 40 on a defense-first team, isn't a star?

"No," Gaborik said. "This is my third year in the league, and I haven't done anything to make me a star."

Finally, as bad as the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings have been, it's still not out of the question that one -- or both -- can recover and sneak back into the playoff field. The Kings would have to get healthy, and the Sharks would have to get their heads screwed on.

East: Senators rule
What a story it would be if the Senators could overcome their playoff-flop past and come out of the East. But if Patrick Lalime continues to play well -- or as well as he did in the third period and overtime of the All-Star Game Sunday -- it's not only possible, but likely.

In the wake of the New York Rangers' firing of coach Bryan Trottier -- and the addition of the coaching duties to Glen Sather's portfolio -- Cablevision head Jim Dolan guaranteed New York would make the playoffs. What team has he been watching? This mess now is Sather's Folly, not mainly Neil Smith's responsibility.

The Tampa Bay Lightning, which was smart enough to avoid trading Vincent Lecavalier and to stick to its broad plan outline, is the East's equivalent of the Wild. But the Washington Capitals, especially now that Jaromir Jagr is on a roll, are locks to win the Southeast and at least a No. 3 seed.

The Boston Bruins have pulled out of their free fall, in part because of their trade of Kyle McLaren to San Jose and acquisition of Jeff Hackett and Jeff Jillson. They could follow that playoff flop of a year ago with a significant advance.

"We needed a goalie, and obviously Jeff's a perfect fit for our team," Bruins center Joe Thornton said. "He's an intense individual, he's a great guy, and he's going to add to this team. Jeff Jillson's a young defenseman, and he's going to be great for us in the future as well. We're just glad we got something in exchange for Kyle. Kyle's a great player, but we're just happy to have somebody back in uniform."

As long as Martin Brodeur is playing so well, the New Jersey Devils are significant threats.

The Atlanta Thrashers, of course, aren't going to make the playoffs. But Dany Heatley's impressive showing in the All-Star Game -- it wasn't just his four goals and successful penalty shot, but the feeling that we had just witnessed a significant step in the maturation of a superstar -- demonstrated why Bob Hartley virtually begged for the coaching job ... although he could have sat out of coaching for another season and a half and collected Colorado's money. So the Thrashers will be worth watching, in more ways than one, for the rest of the season.

Teams are bankrupt, but the game doesn't have to be.

Terry Frei is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. His book, Simon and Schuster's "Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming," is available nationwide.